The Deal With the Bookworm
by Na1n
Summary: "You got yourself a deal then. I'll give you my spotlight, and you give me your shadow. Deal?" Ichigo was the most popular guy in Karakura High. Grimmjow was the bullied bookworm. What happens with they decide to use each other for equal gain? GrimmIchi. AU. More info inside.


_**A/N**_**: Greetings, greetings. That's right. I made ANOTHER fanfic. Only this one's been in process for a while. I was gonna abandon the idea, but I decided to try it out and see what other people think, ne? Now, let me clear up some things.**

**This IS **_**GrimmIchi**_**. Meaning that, yes, Grimmjow WILL be the **_**seme**_** in this fanfic, despite how it seems at first. He will go through A LOT of character development in this story. So please stay with me. **

**Thank you and please, enjoy.**

**Warnings****: MAJOR OOCNESS. For the sake of this story, Grimmjow will be different from his canon self. However, as stated above, I guarantee that his personality will change.**

**Disclaimer****: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.**

**Prologue**

Whispers and murmurs were heard all throughout the classroom, as usual, as the teacher, Ochi-Sensei, taught the lesson of the day for Calculus. No rarely listened to her boring lectures. No one really cared. All of the twenty-two teenagers sitting in that high school classroom only cared of who was fucking who and who had a party this weekend. It was stupid really.

There was only one person who actually paid attention and took consistent notes. Messy blue hair that fell in his face, large, black square-framed glasses, and a cowardly personality described the straight-A student, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. The boy was the top of their entire student body, destined to get into any college he wanted.

Kurosaki Ichigo huffed and watched as some jerk in the desk beside him thought it would be hilarious to throw a balled up piece of paper at the back of the bookworm's head. A lot of students snickered as Grimmjow's head popped up and looked around for the person who threw it. A blush darkened the poor teen's face and he quickly turned back to face the front. Seemed he was used to it by now.

Ichigo didn't know how that felt, to be unpopular and picked on. He was probably the most liked boy in the whole school, not that he cared. The orange-haired teen usually rejected every offer of love to him. He didn't really care to have a relationship, unlike his peers.

"Okay! All of that will be on you test tomorrow," Miss Ochi explained as she turned to face the now quiet class. "Be sure to study and do the homework assigned to you on the board!" The bell then rang and the woman grabbed her things for lunch and headed out of the classroom.

The orangette sighed, fetching his bento out of his bag and walking towards the classroom door, heading to the rooftop to eat lunch _**alone**_. It was the only secret place he could think of where girls wouldn't swarm to him or Keigo wouldn't ask him to go to a party like he always did. He paused at the doorway, however, looking back to see the troublemakers of the class pestering Grimmjow, as usual. Ichigo wasn't sure why he stopped. This happened every day and he ignored it like everyone else did. After all, if anyone was to stand up for the awkward teenager, they'd be treated exactly like him.

"Oi, Jagger-whatever, give us yer bento," one of the boys sneered, placing a head on Grimmjow's desk intimidatingly.

The bluenette ran a nervous hand through his shaggy locks that covered his eyes. "But this is my lunch," he replied, looking up at the troublesome classmate.

"Ha!" That same boy, Nnoitra, laughed and cracked his knuckles. "Looks like ya will have ta go without it today, huh? Or should I give ya a black eye in return for it?" Grimmjow let out an audible gulp and looked away as if he was seriously about to back down and give the damn jerk his lunch.

Ichigo's trademark scowl deepened, and he gritted his teeth. He wanted to help him, but that would mean being picked on constantly by those jerks as well, though he could probably hold his own. It would also mean everyone would ignore him and his popularity rate would go down.

_Wait._

His popularity rate would go down. He'd stop being pestered by girls, and stop being forced to go to those stupid parties. All of that would stop tenfold if he started hanging out with Grimmjow and pretending to be his friend. It wasn't like the boy was completely unlikeable, right?

It was the perfect idea.

Just as Grimmjow was about to give the boys his bento, Ichigo stepped up to his desk. "Oi," he growled out, causing all heads in the room to focus on him. "Get your own lunch, asshole."

Nnoitra raised his only eyebrow, the other covered by his eye patch because of some accident with thugs. "Eh, Kurosaki? What're ya doin'? Ya want this wimp's lunch yerself?" he asked.

"No," Ichigo scoffed. "I'm tellin' you to get the hell outta his hair and get your own damn lunch." He folded his arms across his chest, noticing how Grimmjow stared up at him like he had two heads.

"Yer defendin' this piece a shit?"

"Got a problem with it? Shoo, Nnoitra, or I'll beat the hell out of ya." An evil look was in Ichigo's eyes and Nnoitra and his idiot friends immediately flinched back.

"Hahahaha! Fine then, Kurosaki," he grinned. "I'm tellin' all yer friends that yer bein' friends with 'im." And with that, he and his lackeys walked out of the classroom, leaving Grimmjow and everyone else in the classroom speechless.

"'che. Asshole," Ichigo grumbled, running a hand through his hair. He didn't really care if Nnoitra spread the rumor. In fact, he'd be glad. By the end of lunch, Ichigo would be a free man.

"Uh, why did ya help me?"

The scowling orangette looked down to see the teen with glasses looking up at him in confusion. Blinking, Ichigo pursed his lips. Why did he help him again? "Because you needed help," he mumbled. Yeah, great excuse.

"But you've never helped me before."

"…I don't like Nnoitra."

"He pesters me all the time."

"I've never noticed."

"You walk past my desk every day."

Ichigo's brow twitched. This guy was too smart for his own good. The teen grabbed Grimmjow by the sweater vest of his uniform, dragging him towards the door. "Come eat lunch with me on the roof." The blue-haired teen blinked for a moment, adjusting his bulky glasses before managing to snag his bento off of his desk.

* * *

Alone on the roof, the two boys sat quietly, eating out of their homemade bento lunches before Ichigo broke the silence. "You want the truth, right? About why I helped you?"

"Yeah."

The orangette sighed. "I'm only hanging out with you because no one goes near you. And if I start being buddies with you, everyone will leave me alone too. No more going to stupid parties with drunken idiots and no more flirting girls. It's what I've always wanted."

Grimmjow paused in his eating and spoke in his usual quiet voice. "That's all you want from me?"

"Uh, yeah that's about it."

"…" He mumbled something in return, too low for Ichigo to hear.

"Wait—what was that?" Ichigo raised a tangerine brow, raising an octopus-shaped wiener to his mouth.

Swallowing the bit of food in his mouth, Grimmjow spoke a bit louder. "H-Help me become cooler."

The wiener slipped from Ichigo's chopsticks and landed silently in the bed of rice within his lunch. Blinking rapidly, he was at a loss of words. Become cooler? Was that even a word? "Uh, I don't really understand what you mean by that."

The blue-haired teen sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "I want to have friends and have people actually _like_ me. I want to be strong and be able to stand up for myself."

"That's gonna take a lot of training and change, ya know?"

"It's worth it."

Ichigo let out a sigh again. "You got yourself a deal then. I'll give you my spotlight, and you give me your shadow. Deal?"

Grimmjow offered a small, timid smile. "Deal,"

_This was the beginning of a fake and used friendship._


End file.
